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It’s open season on Canada’s waterways: Is your favourite lake or stream protected?

The Mackenzie River Delta in N.W.T. Aug. 31, 2009. Scientists call it the Amazon of the North and they fear the Mackenzie River Basin, an extensive watershed three times the size of France, is under threat. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP - Rick Bowmer

The Harper Government has decided that blanket protection for all bodies of water in Canada is no longer appropriate, and the 1882 Navigable Water Protection Act will be scrapped in a bill before the House of Commons set to be passed in the omnibus bill.

Replacing it will be the new Navigation Protection Act, covering 97 lakes, 62 rivers and three oceans.

Everything else: It’s open season.

The report last week from Postmedia reporter Mike de Souza, found that this is part two of a measure to change the way the federal government treats waterways in Canada. “Previous changes introduced to the same law in the last major budget legislation removed pipeline projects from its scope,” he wrote.

The original Navigable Waters Protection Act prevents anyone from any construction that may interfere with navigation of any body of water in Canada. The original purpose of the act was to prevent dams, bridges and other potential blockages to transportation popping up without the government’s knowledge or ability to do anything about it.

The new act will eliminate these protections for the vast majority of water bodies in Canada.

While the government maintains that it’s about reducing red tape for everyday Canadians who want to build small footbridges and docks at vacation properties, the opposition argues that it’s part of a systematic destruction of environmental protection across Canada.

According to the federal government, the new Navigation Protection Act will: “From an environmental perspective, our waters will continue to be protected through the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act 2012, the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, the Species at Risk Act, and the Fisheries Act.”

The government presented the list of rivers, lakes and oceans that will continue be covered under the new act as past of 443 page PDF file. But extracting the list and plotting them on a map enables everyday Canadians to see how the treatment of their favourite lakes and rivers will change.

The lakes and oceans identified in the Navigation Protection Act are:

The rivers identified in the Navigation Protection Act are (the lines are as-the-crow-flies from the beginning of the protected area to the end of the protected area – click on each line for a more thorough description of the protected areas):